Company co-founder and CEO Elon Musk laid out the production target to investors in a first quarter earnings letter and conference call Wednesday.
DETROIT, MI - Tesla Motors is still on target to build 80-90,000 electric vehicles this year, plans to grow that number to 500,000 by 2018, and aims to be making 1 million units by 2020.
Company co-founder and CEO Elon Musk laid out the production target to investors in a first quarter earnings letter and conference call Wednesday.
He would not comment specifically on future investments in production but said that the company could feasibly reach the production goal just using its Fremont, Calif. car factory and its so-called GigaFactory for batteries and related parts in Nevada.
However, Musk said that would probably not be "advisable," and said that the company will need more than one plant in North America to satisfy demand. He also said that meeting increased demand abroad will mean building plants outside North America.
"At some point it's going to make sense to have a plant in Europe and a plant in China and plants in other parts of the world," Musk said.
In its letter to investors, Tesla touted the fierce demand for its Model 3, pointing to it as evidence that electric vehicles have mass-market appeal. But the warm reception of the yet-to-be-built, $35,000 Model 3 has not taken away from sales of Tesla's currently available Model S sedan, Musk said.
The company's total revenues in the quarter grew to $1.14 billion, up from $893 million in the year-ago period. But operating expenses grew to $501 million, as compared to $362 million in the first quarter of 2015.
And Tesla's net loss widened to $248 million in the quarter, compared with a loss of $154 million in the year-ago period.
The company was hit with several production issues with the Model X all-electric SUV in the period, which launched last September. In after-hours trading, investors seemed unfazed.
Musk said in the conference call that the Model X is probably the most difficult car to manufacture in the world, but said the company has been making gains.
"We have some internal mountains that I think we've achieved thus far that I'm excited about," Musk said. He added that on Friday at 3 a.m. Tesla achieved the first flawless production of the Model X.
He also said the Model 3 would be far less complicated to build than the Model X.
Revealed at the end of March, Tesla collected more than 325,000 deposits for the Model 3 - at $1,000 apiece - in its first week of pre-orders.
The Model 3 is set to go into production near the end of next year, and arrive to apparently eager customers' driveways in 2018.
"Tesla collected an estimated $400 million from refundable deposits on the Model 3, but may need to seek out more after announcing a 50% increase in capital expenditures," said Mark Williams, analyst for Kelley Blue Book. "The pressure from building a Gigafactory, delivering units ahead of schedule, and replacing valuable resources is going to pose some interesting challenges for the Tesla brand."
David Muller is the automotive and business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com, follow him on Twitter or find him on Facebook.